College of Arts and Letters
Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Fiscal Year 2025-2026
Message from Leadership
Dear Donor, Thank you for your continued generosity and support. Your contributions have funded student scholarships and fellowships, supported faculty research and professional development, and sustained community-engaged programs such as the Young Women’s Studies Club at Hoover High School and the Bread and Roses Feminist Research Colloquium Series. Because of your support, we continue to educate future scholars, advocates, and leaders committed to creating a more just and equitable world. At a time when issues of gender and racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, bodily autonomy, voting rights, and freedom of expression remain at the forefront of public discourse, the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies remains dedicated to fostering open inquiry and producing research that contributes to these important conversations. More than 55 years after its founding, the department continues its legacy of scholarship, social justice, and civic engagement. Your partnership makes this work possible, and we are deeply grateful for your support.
Kimala Price, Ph.D. Professor and Chair Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Student Spotlight
Thriving in the Aztec Experience Carina Hernandez-Carillo, Class of 2026 Class Level: Graduating Senior College: College of Arts and Letters Major: Women’s and Gender Studies Carina Hernandez-Carillo, a double major in Sociology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies graduating with a 3.97 GPA, was selected as the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 2026 Outstanding Graduating Senior; she named Professor Irene Lara as her Most Influential Faculty Member. After 28 years as a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy, Carina, a single mother, returned to school to pursue a degree alongside her only child, and the pair took pride in graduating together this year. Deeply committed to social justice, she has been active in her community, including leading an in-person voter registration drive at San Diego Mesa College in 2024. She states, “I attribute my success to my amazing professors, women like me with their own families and responsibilities, who are passionate about equality, understanding, acceptance, and empowerment. Sharing their experiences with sexism, racism, and the struggle to nurture themselves while caring for others was invaluable, helping me realize that we are empowered by our sisterhood and shared experiences.”
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I attribute my success to my amazing professors, women like me with their own families and responsibilities, who are passionate about equality, understanding, acceptance, and empowerment.
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Student Spotlight
Faith Chinnapong, Class of 2026 Class Level: Graduating 2nd year M.A. student College: College of Arts and Letters Major: M.A. Feminist Studies Graduating with a 3.9 GPA, Faith Chinnapong was named the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Outstanding Graduate Student for 2026. A reproductive justice community organizer with experience at California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, she also served as a Graduate Teaching Associate, teaching an introductory Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies course during her second year in the MA program. Her activism focuses on queering reproductive justice, with particular attention to the reproductive care experiences of young queer people of color. Reflecting on her time in the program, Faith shared that earning a master’s degree is a source of immense pride as a first-generation student raised by a single mother of five. She is the first in her family to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. While balancing full-time work, internships, teaching, and community organizing, she found the experience challenging but deeply rewarding. She credits the department with shaping her growth as a scholar and lifelong learner and is proud to research issues that matter deeply to her.
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[Faith] credits the department with shaping her growth as a scholar and lifelong learner and is proud to research issues that matter deeply to her.
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Points of Pride
Celebrating Shared Success Statistics of Interest Interest in WGSS continues to grow, with 58 majors and 78 minors currently enrolled. Student achievement remains strong, with 11 of 13 graduating majors earning distinction this year. The department also celebrated a milestone by awarding its first M.A. degrees in Feminist Studies to eight graduates. The Young Women’s Studies Club at Hoover High School engages students through weekly discussions on feminist topics while providing valuable teaching experience for WGSS students. Recent Highlights The department was recently honored at the 2025 annual conference of the National Women’s Studies Association in a Presidential Session titled “Still Here, Still Brave: Celebrating the First Women's Studies Program in the U.S.” According to NWSA President Heidi R. Lewis, the goal was “to honor our pasts, reflect on our present, and prepare for our futures by celebrating our formidable colleagues at San Diego State College (now San Diego State University), who inaugurated the first Women’s Studies Program 55 years ago in 1970.” Congratulations to Angela Coker on her promotion to the rank of Professor this year. Kimala Price was a panelist for the webinar “The Future of Higher Education,” hosted by the American Association of University Women in January 2026. Starting in Fall 2026, the department will begin offering the following newly approved courses: WGSS 510 Black Feminist Thought, WGSS 542 Feminist Disability Studies, and WGSS 555 Climate Justice and Feminism. This academic year, several of our faculty have won awards for their efforts: Marie Draz received the Excellence in Service Faculty Award (2025–2026) from the SDSU College of Arts and Letters. Amira Jarmakani received the Excellence in Mentorship Award from the Association of Asian American Studies (2026). Irene Lara received SDSU's Distinguished Faculty Alumni Association Award (2025). Jess Whatcott received an honorable mention for the 2025 Allison Piepmeier Book Prize from the National Women’s Studies Association for their book Menace to the Future: A Disability and Queer History of Carceral Eugenics (Duke University Press).
55 Years
For 55 years, WGSS has advanced feminist education, scholarship, and community impact across campus and beyond.
Thank you for your generous support.
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